SAP Launches Grow to Promote ERP in the Cloud
SAP, a software company, is promoting the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) in the cloud with its Grow campaign. After Rise with SAP, the second marketing and sales program is aimed at medium-sized customers who want to quickly start using SAP in their own ERP world. Grow with SAP bundles the software-as-a-service (SaaS) variant of the ERP package, S/4HANA Cloud, Public Cloud, with preconfigured best practices for process flows, adoption services, and free learning resources. The goal is for companies to become productive in just four weeks.
In addition to S/4HANA Cloud, Public Cloud, Grow also includes the business technology platform PaaS BTP with the low-code/no-code environment called Build. This allows users to implement their own process refinements and minor functional additions without programming.
Grow vs. Rise with SAP
While Grow may look similar to Rise with SAP at first glance, the two programs differ significantly. Grow is a pure SaaS/public cloud product with standardized processes intended for new customers. Rise with SAP is meant to encourage existing customers to switch to the S/4HANA Cloud, but it deals primarily with the migration and transformation of previous SAP ERP versions and the choice of the private cloud edition for operations.
SAP’s Previous Efforts to Promote Cloud ERP
SAP has previously attempted to win new small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) customers for cloud ERP. In 2007, Business ByDesign SaaS offering was launched to achieve the same objective but wasn’t as successful as expected. SAP Grow has also been used in marketing for a long time, with the slogan “optionally provided with or by” to generate interest in S/4HANA from the cloud among start-ups.
Criticism of Grow with SAP
The German-speaking SAP user group (DSAG) remains skeptical of Grow’s ability to attract new medium-sized enterprise customers to S/4HANA. In addition to start-ups and newly founded companies, DSAG believes that current customers who use a traditional SAP ERP system or Business ByDesign will also benefit from the Grow campaign. The user group considers Grow an attractive offer for new customers who use a preconfigured ERP with little need for customization. However, it questions whether it is possible for companies to switch between the two offering worlds without great effort as their requirements and processes get more complex.
Conclusion
SAP’s Grow campaign aims to promote S/4HANA Cloud, Public Cloud with standardized processes to new medium-sized customers. The new offer bundles the software-as-a-service (SaaS) variant of the ERP package with preconfigured best practices for process flows, adoption services, and free learning resources. Regardless of its intention, the DSAG remains skeptical of its potential for growth and advises that a transparent migration path to the private cloud world with more individual process orientations is necessary.
